Melody's Marvellous Music
by The Lost Pages
Summary: A story focussing on Melody and Shivers' life and afterlife, and a certain plumber's unknowingly impact on it.


The conservatory. A room in the mansion that was filled with all kinds of musical instruments. A harp, a saxophone, a cello, ketlle drums, an xylophone, and at the very end of the conservatory, a grand piano. It was this large, beautiful instrument that was played by Melody Pianissima, the spectral beauty of the ivory keys. The young, elegant lady, or ghost as she was now, played the piano for as long as she could remember.

A long time ago, Melody was a well-known composer and music teacher. She composed many pieces that rivalled those of Ludwig von Koopa and are still famous today. But sadly she died from a mysterious illness at a young age. In the Mario universe, when someone passes away, their soul goes to a place separate from the mortal world where they live a happy and carefree afterlife. But a soul can also voluntary leave this ¨heaven¨, taking the form of a ghost to visit the world of the living. Melody was one of those ghosts that preferred the world of the living to their own realm most of the time. She wanted to show the world that a ghost can play the piano just as good as a living person.

When Melody was alive she lived in a large mansion together with many of her family members. Her family was large and diverse, but none of them shared Melody's passion for music. Melody loved her family, but she felt that over the years she has grown more and more distant from the rest of her family because of them not sharing her passion. Most of them weren't interested in music at all. However, one person in the mansion surely was. It was Shivers, the butler.

He fell in love with Melody and her marvellous music before he even saw her. Everyday, he was thinking about her, and often stopped before the door of the conservatory to enjoy the sound of her music. He wanted to tell her his feelings for her many times, but every time he was about to tell her he was hit by the same realisation: She was a young lady from a rich family and he was a humble butler, only there to serve his master. And besides, he was much older than her and didn't possess any musical skill to impress her. He was thinking about taking piano lessons from her so he could be in her presence and impress her with the music she taught him. But every time he asked her, she said that she was too busy at the moment with all her compositions and other people's lessons. Shivers accepted this, but he noticed something that made him worry a bit:

Melody has always been a bit vain and short of speech, though still nice most of the time. But recently her mood had definitely changed, and not for the better. She talked even less than she did before, only when spoken to, and got angry very quickly. She told people, including Shivers, to leave her alone. ¨Poor Melody, the stress of composing too many pieces and teaching too many students is too much for her. And her health condition isn't helping either¨, Shivers thought with a worried look on his face.

-Many years later-

Melody, who was a ghost now, spent much of her afterlife the same way as when she was alive: playing the piano. Since all of her other family members are ghosts too now, the mansion was no longer filled with the bodies of the living.

But that changed one day when a strange guy in a white lab coat and a vacuum cleaner set foot in the mansion. The ghostly family continued with their usual activities and tried to ignore the stranger as much as possible. But that changed when they saw that the vacuum cleaner was not an ordinary one. This one could suck up ghosts, and that's the exact reason why the man was here. One by one, each of the ghosts was sucked up in his ectoplasm-sucking device.

Professor Elvin Gadd, as the man's name was, transformed each of the ghosts into a painting using a complex machine that he called the Ghost Portrificationizer. The ghosts, now made into pictures, were hung in an art gallery by E. Gadd. They remained there for quite some time until a large, evil piece of ectoplasm turned them into ghosts again.

It was King Boo, the leader of the boos. Boos are considered troublemakers and even other ghosts dislike them. Unknown to the ghosts of Melody's family, King Boo has set up an evil plan to capture Mario and his brother Luigi. He sent a letter to Luigi that he won a large mansion. Mario told Luigi that he would be there to celebrate Luigi's winning together with him, but was captured by King Boo before Luigi arrived.

The ghosts knew something was off. The doors were shut, but being ghosts, this didn't bother them at all. Also, there were a lot of other ghosts in the mansion that weren't there before. Some hung from the ceiling, others just floated around. There even were ghost mice. The ghosts of Melody's family suspected the feared King Boo, but knowing how cruel he is, they decided it was better to just continue with their usual activities.

Shivers was floating down the corridor in front of the conservatory, listening to Melody's music like he has done so many times when he was alive. ¨Now that I'm a ghost, and Melody Pianissima too, maybe she won't ignore me any longer. After all, what does age matter when you are a ghost?¨

¨I just _know_ this will be the day. It's now or never! But what should I do? And what should I say to her?¨ The spirit was so deep in thought that he didn't notice the young man in green standing next to him. ¨Ah, the beautiful Melody will not even give me the time of day… What must I do to win her? Passion! Yes! That's it. I will show her I burn for her! My unbridled passion will scorch her soul!¨ He even brought a candelabra to set the mood. But this turned out to be a bad idea…

In all his excitement, Shivers forgot his fear of fire. ¨The burning flames of unbridled passion! Or… wait, how about the passionate flames of unbridled burning?¨ Luigi aimed his ghost-capturing device, the Poltergust 3000 at the candles Shivers was holding and a huge flame lit the three candles at once. ¨Aahhh! Fire! Fire! Fire! Run away! Run awaaay!¨ Shivers quickly ran to the Butler's Room, where the butler stayed when his masters didn't need him. In sheer panic he accidentally put the burning candles under his stool. This caused him to catch fire. Luigi saw this as an excellent opportunity to catch the ghost. Shivers struggled but the power of the Poltergust was too strong and he eventually lost.

Melody, who was still practicing in the conservatory, didn't notice a thing.

After sucking up Shivers, Luigi continued the quest to free his brother.

He opened the door of the conservatory and began to inspect some of the room's instruments. ¨Hmph! This ragamuffin looks as if he couldn't play a note!¨, Melody thought when she saw Luigi looking at the instruments. But she didn't know the instruments were haunted because of King Boo and cold now play at their own. In his search for anything useful, Luigi activated all instruments, one by one. The saxophone, the harp, the cello, the kettle drums and the xylophone. All of the instruments played together in perfect harmony as one orchestra. And Melody, she happily played along.

¨My name is Melody. People call me the spectral beauty of the ivory keys! What a stirring performance! I haven't been so charmed by a piece for ages!¨ Luigi didn't know what to say. Melody had always loved video games, and was a big fan of the Mario Brother's games. Melody especially loved the games for their music. She often drew inspiration from video games and arranged many popular themes for the piano, which she played with great perfection. Now that one of the famous plumbers was right next to her, she saw it as a great honour to play her newest piece, a cover of ¨The Athletic Theme¨ from Super Mario Bros. 3. ¨You must have a delicate ear for music. Would you like to listen to my piano sonata?¨ ¨Well, here I go.¨ She played the intro of the piece flawless with great joy. To test Luigi's knowledge of music, she questioned Luigi about the arrangement: ¨By the way… that song was featured in a famous game. Do you know which game?¨ ¨Uhm… Super Mario Bros. 3?¨, Luigi stammered. ¨Exactly right! You got it!¨, Melody exclaimed with excitement. ¨Very impressive! I guess I needn't hold back with you!¨

It was only until now that Melody saw the Poltergust on Luigi's back. She was shocked to realise what the brother of the most famous plumber of the Mushroom Kingdom wanted to do with her. If she only knew the real reason for capturing her. But Luigi or not, she had to keep herself secure. ¨Would you care to do battle with my lovely Music Sheets?¨ She summoned the music sheets by furiously playing the grand piano. But Luigi sucked up the music sheets with ease. After that, he started with Melody, who was vulnerable now the magical music sheets no longer protected her. Like all ghosts, she struggled, even though she knew it wouldn't last long before she lost.

The End.


End file.
